This blog provides a meditation on the Episcopal daily reading along with a headline from world news:

POPES NEW BOOK CONDEMNS “VIOLENCE IN GOD’S NAME”

Hebrews 2:11-18

11For the one who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one origin. For this reason Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters, 12saying,

‘I will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters,

in the midst of the congregation I will praise you.’

13And again,

‘I will put my trust in him.’

And again,

‘Here am I and the children whom God has given me.’

14 Since, therefore, the children share flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared the same things, so that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, 15and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death. 16For it is clear that he did not come to help angels, but the descendants of Abraham. 17Therefore he had to become like his brothers and sisters in every respect, so that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make a sacrifice of atonement for the sins of the people. 18Because he himself was tested by what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested.

Hebrews can seem obscure in its mode of argument, but it is a profound and radical meditation on the meaning of Jesus. There are some splendid insights here:

1. “The one who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one origin”, that is, Jesus and humanity have one Father. This should rule out all theologies which depict a vengeful God who has to punish Jesus in place of sinners.
2. Jesus is depicted as speaking the words of scripture quoted from the Psalms and the book of Isaiah. Jesus, God’s Word-made-flesh, speaks the words of scripture and thereby gives them the right interpretation. In Jesus’ mouth scriptures that advocate violence in God’s name are robbed of their violence and become desciptions of a battle “which is not against flesh and blood.” This gives us a biblical guide to biblical interpretation.
3. Jesus “is not ashamed” to call human beings his brothers and sisters. This is like the later expression in Hebrews 12 that God is “not ashamed to be called their God.” In both cases the honour of Jesus and God demands that what they are called is no sham. In Jesus’ case it demanded that he should be truly human, sharing flesh and blood and death.
4. Jesus’ death is liberating because death could not hold him and will not be able to hold those who trust in him.
5. His death is also a willing sacrifice, a perfect offering of love in which his human brothers and sisters can share, restoring the relationship with God which their sin has broken.

Any one of these insights could be developed much more fully

John 2:1-12

2On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. 2Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. 3When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, ‘They have no wine.’ 4And Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come.’ 5His mother said to the servants, ‘Do whatever he tells you.’ 6Now standing there were six stone water-jars for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. 7Jesus said to them, ‘Fill the jars with water.’ And they filled them up to the brim. 8He said to them, ‘Now draw some out, and take it to the chief steward.’ So they took it. 9When the steward tasted the water that had become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward called the bridegroom 10and said to him, ‘Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now.’ 11Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.12 After this he went down to Capernaum with his mother, his brothers, and his disciples; and they remained there for a few days.

This is a good illustration of John’s storytelling method. Mary tells Jesus they have no wine. He, referring to the wine of the eucharist, says that his hour (the hour of the cross) has not yet come. This is interesting theology but scarcely believable conversation. In John, theological meaning controls (and often disrupts) the story. Behind this narrative are a) the notion of the Messiah as bridegroom of Israel b) Jesus’ sayings about new wine requiring new wineskins; and the impossibility of his disciples fasting while “the bridegroom is with them.” c) the information about the use of water jars for Jewish rites of purification. d) a story in John’s sources about a miracle of Jesus at a wedding.

Out of these elements, John weaves the story we know. It tells the reader that Jesus Messiah, the bridegroom of humanity, will create a means of purification, at the time of his “hour”, which will be as superior to the old way as wine is to water. Unpicking the narrative stitching allows us to see how carefully and creatively it has been fashioned. As a whole the New Testament shows the extent to which believing communities and writers struggled to express the explosive significance of Jesus within the context of Jewish faith. Through Jesus, the rejected Messiah, the Jewish story of God breaks out into the “Gentile” world.